Obama’s Economic and Moral Bankruptcy

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/09/18/obamas-economic-and-moral-bankruptcy/

By Larry JohnsoncloseAuthor: Larry Johnson Name: Larry Johnson
Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net
Site: http://NoQuarterUSA.net
About: Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm with expertise combating terrorism and investigating money laundering. Mr. Johnson works with US military commands in scripting terrorism exercises, briefs on terrorist trends, and conducts undercover investigations on counterfeiting, smuggling and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism, is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC's Nightline, NBC's Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world, including the Center for Research and Strategic Studies at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. He represented the U.S. Government at the July 1996 OSCE Terrorism Conference in Vienna, Austria. From 1989 until October 1993, Larry Johnson served as a Deputy Director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He managed crisis response operations for terrorist incidents throughout the world and he helped organize and direct the US Government’s debriefing of US citizens held in Kuwait and Iraq, which provided vital intelligence on Iraqi operations following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Mr. Johnson also participated in the investigation of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103. Under Mr. Johnson’s leadership the U.S. airlines and pilots agreed to match the US Government’s two million-dollar reward. From 1985 through September 1989 Mr. Johnson worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. During his distinguished career, he received training in paramilitary operations, worked in the Directorate of Operations, served in the CIA’s Operation’s Center, and established himself as a prolific analyst in the Directorate of Intelligence. In his final year with the CIA he received two Exceptional Performance Awards. Mr. Johnson is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He taught at The American University’s School of International Service (1979-1983) while working on a Ph.D. in political science. He has a M.S. degree in Community Development from the University of Missouri (1978), where he also received his B.S. degree in Sociology, graduating Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1976.See Authors Posts (809) on September 18, 2008 at 8:42 AM in Current Affairs

At some point the truth police must show up and arrest Barack Obama for reckless endangerment of the truth for his role in the Wall Street meltdown. Barack wants to portray the chaos in the financial markets as the fruits of letting irresponsible capitalists run amuck when the reality is that he has been part of the symbiotic incest that has helped feed and abet the activities that now have the Federal government scrambling to contain a global financial meltdown. Although Barack is not responsible for the poor decision making of the executives at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and Fannie Mae, he is to blame for surrounding himself with those folks as his advisors and for taking more of their money than most members of Congress. Where the hell is the media in focusing attention on his duplicity?

Let’s start with the money. Compare the money Barack has raised fromfrom lobbyists with that McCain has snagged. Obama received a grand total (per Open Secrets) of $1,223,737.00 from Fannie Mae, Freddic Mac, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and Bear Stearns while John McCain received only $258,075.00.

John McCain $6,550 (Fannie Mae) $9,100 (Freddie Mac) $117,500 (Lehman Bros.) $36,875 (AIG) and $88,050 (Bear Stearns)

Barack Obama $137,950 (Fannie Mae) $68,750 (Freddie Mac) $370,524 (Lehman Bros.) $75,899 (AIG) and $570,614 (Bear Stearns)

So, why in the hell does Barack Obama, a first term Senator, get more money from financial institutions who have helped produce the worse financial crisis in a century than the crusty old so-called Washington insider John McCain?

Because Barack played ball with these folks. If you start with his longtime fund raiser, Tony Rezko, you find a direct road to Nadhmi Auchi, a British-Iraqi billionaire who loaned Tony Rezko $3.5 million shortly before Rezko helped Obama buy a house he could not then afford. Oh yeah, almost forgot. Auchi is one of the largest shareholders in the bank that stands the most to lose from Lehman Brothers’ woes. Is it likely that one of the reasons Obama got so much dough in the first place from the Lehman folks was because of the Auchi ties?

When it comes to getting favorable loans that the average American cannot obtain, Barack hangs with the right folks. Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson both got sweetheart deals fromfrom Countrywide. So what? Well, both Raines and Johnson ran Fannie Mae and Raines paid almost $25 million dollars for his role in a Fannie Mae accounting scandal. As I noted in an earlier post, Obama initially named Johnson to head up his VP search team.

But wait, there is more. Penny Pritzker. Our own Uppity Woman dished the dirt here. In a nutshell, “one of the first subprime lenders to stick it to borrowers and have her bank seized is a woman named Penny Pritzker, who just happens to be Barack Obama’s campaign Finance Chair (as confirmed on April 3, 2008) and a potential Secretary of the Treasury in an Obama administration.”

What does this say about Barack’s “judgment?” When it comes to losers and thieves he sure knows how to pick them. It is one thing to get yourself a sweetheart home loan with the help of a guy being investigated on federal corruption charges (and subsequently convicted). An isolated bad choice? Wait a minute. Then what about Raines, Johnson, and Pritzker?

Why is it that the major financial institutions in the toliet or heading there all wanted to give this first term kid a whole bunch of money? They were not tossing him dollars just because he cleans up well, looks good in a suit, flashes a nice smile, and speaks proper English. They wanted something.

I find it fascinating that John McCain has a clear record of opposing these financial special interests (he learned his lesson the hard way with the Keating five scandal) and it is Barack, who is up to his eyeballs in these sleazy money, who for now is being given a pass.

One final point. Take a look at this piece of investigative journalism documenting chapter and verse about Obama’s ties with the slumlords of Chicago. The meltdown on Wall Street started with these slumlords. It is all part of the same activity–an insiders club that pays those who go along while inflicting pain on the poor. That was Barack’s game, not McCain’s.